


An Unlikely Friendship

by pravenclaw



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 06:13:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24480016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pravenclaw/pseuds/pravenclaw
Summary: Ginny Weasley is about to start her first year at Hogwarts. She's dogged with worries. Will people like her? Will she be in Gryffindor? Will people look down on her secondhand robes and tatty books? Luckily for Ginny, she meets someone on the train who settles and calms her nerves, without even realising it.This was written as part of my friend Bertie's #LightInTheDarkness project. You can view other people's submissions using the hashtag over on Twitter. Today's (1̶s̶t̶ ̶J̶u̶n̶e̶) (15th June) is Friendship.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 7





	An Unlikely Friendship

A loud whistle blew somewhere, and all the doors closed suddenly. Ginny’s mum and dad blew kisses to her as the train started to move. Her mum wore an anxious expression on her face, and glanced into each compartment as it passed her, clearly eager to spot Ron or Harry among the many faces pressing against the glass. Ginny blinked and her parents and the platform were gone.

Fred and George left her to find their friend Lee Jordan soon after, promising they’d check on her later. Ginny was scared at the thought of being left alone, but simply nodded, not wanting to make a fuss. Mainly she was worried about lugging her trunk all the way up and down the train trying to find a spare seat.

The fourth compartment she passed was empty, all except for one girl, who sat reading quietly in the corner. She was pale, with dark shoulder-length hair, and was already dressed in her crisp new Hogwarts robes. Ginny suddenly felt very embarrassed about the state of the second-hand ones folded neatly in her trunk. The girl smiled as Ginny walked in.

‘Sorry, do you mind?’ blushed Ginny. ‘Is this compartment free?’

‘It’s free,’ nodded the girl enthusiastically. ‘It’s just me.’

She got up and helped Ginny in with her trunk and retook her seat. Ginny thanked the girl and sat down opposite her. She glanced out of the window as the train whizzed by the neat terraced houses with their long stretching gardens. They must be on the outskirts of London by now, Ginny thought to herself.

‘Would you like a Pepper Imp?’ asked the girl. ‘My Mother doesn’t like us to have a lot of sweets, but Father gave me these earlier this morning when she wasn’t looking. Luckily my sister didn’t see, or she’d have told Mother. She can be quite spiteful when she wants to be.’

The pale girl giggled and held out the bag towards Ginny.

‘N-no, no, thank you,’ said Ginny. ‘I feel a bit sick actually.’

The night before Hogwarts, Ginny had learnt, was not a good night if you didn’t want to go. She barely slept at all, her mind worrying about so many different things. She had always wanted to go to Hogwarts, ever since she learnt of the place where her brothers disappeared to each year. But now that it was finally her turn; Ginny didn’t want to go.

Though they each had their complaints, like certain teachers and the amount of homework they each set, Ginny knew her brothers loved Hogwarts really. The night before for them was filled with excitement and an eagerness to return there. She took some comfort from that, but still her mind was troubled.

Earlier that morning, Ginny even pretended she had left her diary behind and made a right old fuss insisting they return to the Burrow at once to retrieve it, hoping that it would mean they’d miss the train. Unfortunately for Ginny, her dad’s car was faster than it looked.

‘Is this your first year too?’ said the girl. ‘I could barely eat my breakfast this morning, but I feel much better now. I’m not as nervous now I’m actually on the train and on my way to Hogwarts. Not now I’ve made a friend,’ said the girl cheerily. A wave of reassurance flooded over Ginny suddenly, a feeling that told her everything was going to be all right.

‘I’m Astoria, by the way,’ said the girl. ‘Astoria Greengrass.’

‘I’m Ginny Weasley.’

Astoria looked thoughtful for a second, as if she had heard the name somewhere before.

‘Mother warned my sister Daphne to look after me, but she went off to find her friends before the train had even left the platform – not that I need anyone to look after me. “ _I’ve got better things to do than babysit you, Astoria. I’m sure you’ll make friends of your own_ ,” she said, in a whiny, mocking voice. ‘She’s going into her second year now but acts like she knows everything already. What about you? Do you have any brothers or sisters?’

‘Yes,’ said Ginny timidly. ‘Six older brothers.’

‘ _Six_? And you’re the only girl?’

‘Th-that’s right. My oldest brother, Bill, he’s a curse breaker for Gringotts… and my brother Charlie, he works with dragons in Romania. We visited him last Christmas. And Percy, well he’s a prefect, which Fred and George like to tease him about – they’re my other brothers – Prefect Perce, they call him, but Mum always tells them off,’ giggled Ginny, though when saying it out loud it didn’t seem at all funny. Thankfully, Astoria laughed along with her.

‘And my brother Ron… well he’s just Ron. He’s friends with Harry Potter…’

Ginny’s voice trailed off. Her mum wouldn’t be proud of her boasting, but Ginny felt like she had nothing special or exciting to say about herself. Her brothers and their friends were all she could think of to say so as to leave any impression at all.

‘ _Harry Potter_?’ blinked Astoria. ‘Really? Have you ever met him?’

‘Y-yes,’ stuttered Ginny. ‘He stayed at our house this summer.’ Her face suddenly felt very warm. She hoped Astoria hadn’t noticed.

‘What’s he like?’ said Astoria, as she leaned forward in her seat.

‘He’s… well, he’s… _nice_ ,’ said Ginny. There were many more words she could’ve used to describe Harry, but “nice” was the simplest and least embarrassing for her.

‘Oh…,’ said Astoria, in a way that suggested she had heard differently.

‘Is it true he was raised by Muggles?’ she said quietly. ‘They write all sorts about him in the _Daily Prophet_ , you know? But I don’t think you should trust everything you read in the papers these days. Daphne told me about what happened at the end of last year… how You-Know Who tried to… well, I guess you probably already know all that. It must be odd being him, being famous for something you probably can’t even remember, having everyone talking about you, whispering behind your back all the time.’

Ginny agreed, and was grateful when Astoria changed the topic.

‘What subject are you most excited for?’

‘Flying,’ replied Ginny without even stopping to think. ‘I love flying.’

‘My parents don’t let me fly,’ Astoria said wistfully, brushing the hair from out of her eyes. ‘They let Daphne, but not me.’

‘Why?’

Astoria blushed, wincing as she looked down towards the ground.

‘I’ve been – _unwell_ – in the past – for a few years, and they’re nervous that something will happen to me and I’ll get ill again.’

‘Oh… I’m sorry,’ murmured Ginny. ‘That’s awful.’

‘Thanks. I’m better now, anyway,’ grinned Astoria. ‘And I certainly don’t plan on getting sick ever again. What house do you reckon you’ll be in?’

‘Gryffindor, I hope,’ said Ginny. ‘Everyone in my family is, anyway. I don’t think I could bear it if I wasn’t. Watch me get put into Slytherin, Fred and George are always joking that I will be.’

‘I don’t think Slytherins are quite as bad as everyone makes out,’ said Astoria, blushing slightly, ‘at least not in my experience. My whole family were in Slytherin. My sister too.’

‘Sorry…’ mumbled Ginny, but Astoria merely shrugged and stuffed another Pepper Imp in her mouth. ‘Are you sure you don’t want one?’ she said, proffering the bag towards Ginny once more. Ginny smiled and took one this time, just as steam erupted from out of Astoria’s ears, fogging up the compartment window.

The steam in the compartment dissipated quickly, but still the two girls howled with laughter. They laughed for the remainder of the journey, unaware that high above them in the clouds flew a blue Ford Anglia car, closely following the train hurtling ever north.

*

That night, after the Sorting and the feast, Ginny sat cross-legged on the floor of her dormitory, quietly unpacking her trunk. The other girls lay asleep in their beds around her. At the bottom of her trunk, wrapped in her tattered winter cloak and stuffed in her rusty pewter cauldron, was the diary. The diary she had pretended to leave at home that morning. She took it out, along with a quill and a pot of black ink.

The diary felt heavy in her hands. Ginny grasped it tightly, suddenly overwhelmed with a feeling of guilt that she hadn’t written in it all day. She glanced around the dormitory nervously, hoping her hurried scribbling wouldn’t wake anyone. Ginny opened the diary to its first page. It was blank, as it was always was, no matter how many words she wrote on it.

_Dear Tom,_

_I’m sorry for not writing today. I’m at Hogwarts now. It’s exactly as you described. I met a girl on the train. Her name’s Astoria Greengrass. She’s very nice…_

***

**Author's Note:**

> In my mind at least this is compliant with Cursed Child. We do know Ginny sent a letter of condolence to Draco after Astoria's death.
> 
> I don't imagine Astoria and Ginny being best friends, in the way that their sons turned out to be, but had the kind of relationship where they'd wave as they passed each other on the staircase or in a corridor, or have a brief chat as they found themselves beside each other as everyone funnelled into the Great Hall for the Hallowe'en feast, not giving a jot what people from their respective houses might say.
> 
> Astoria isn't mentioned by name in any of the Harry Potter books, so it's impossible to say how much younger she was than Daphne (and Draco). But I like the dynamic of both Harry and Draco eventually marrying women who were the year below them at school.


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